


running just to keep my hands on you

by donutworry



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: 5+1 Things, Bon getting loved like she deserved, Bonnie Bennett-centric, Developing Relationship, F/F, F/M, Female Friendship, Multi, Multiple Relationships, Mutual Pining, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-12 06:28:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21815899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donutworry/pseuds/donutworry
Summary: All the people who love Bonnie Bennett before....And the one person who loved her through everything.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Jamie Wilson, Bonnie Bennett/Jeremy Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett/Jesse, Bonnie Bennett/Lorenzo "Enzo" St. John, Bonnie Bennett/Malachai "Kai" Parker, Bonnie Bennett/Mary Louise
Comments: 46
Kudos: 68





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I Hear Thunder In The Distance](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18090395) by [perfectlystill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlystill/pseuds/perfectlystill). 

> Welcome to donutworry's 2k19 Bonkai End of the Year Party! Hosted by me and attended by me. Woohoo!
> 
> Just kidding. But expect something posted every day from now until New Year's day. Some new fics, some old, all with brand new material (New chapters! Endings with real resolutions! Chyeah boy!).
> 
> Title from the song "There For You" by Martin Garrix and Troye Sivan. The chapters are not posted in the chronological order of Bonnie's relationships - the only one that is chronological is Kai, who will be last because he's endgame. Do see if you can figure out the order. It'll be like a game no one asked to play.
> 
> This was inspired by an MCU Spider-Man series by perfectlystill that I read and fell in love with. Although my fic is nowhere near as angsty (or good) as that series, I hella recommend. It's linked. Please read it and review it, if that's your jam.
> 
> TW's: Sex between teenagers. Growth through being bad at relationships. That's about it.

* * *

**the girl who was a rebound**

Mary-Louise first meets Bonnie at a house party.

She wants to hate her. She really does. The blonde sidles up to her with an attitude and a grudge to fuel it, ready to (figuratively) cut the other girl like a split-end.

Over the past few weeks, Mary-Louise has come to have enough of Bonnie Sheila fucking Bennett. Enough, in fact, to dump her longtime girlfriend, Nora, in a fit of jealous pique. Mary-Louise regrets the loss of her temper, but pride is her most indulged sin, not wrath. She won’t apologize until Nora does first.

So. She first meets Bonnie at a house party, instantly recognizing the shorter girl from the Instagram posts on Nora’s feed about the amazing friend she made in advanced econ.

It’s not like Mary-Louise thinks Nora ever cheated on her. But she knows herself, knows how covetous and insecure she can be about her loved ones. Nora may have never cheated, but when Mary-Louise looked at Bonnie, she knows Nora thought about it.

“Too good to dougie?” she mutters, flopping back against the wall Bonnie is already leaning on.

Cat-like eyes dart to her. For the first time, Mary-Louise’s conviction in her anger stutters.

Those eyes are haunted.

“Excuse me?”

It’s not said in annoyance. Bonnie Bennett sounds genuinely confused.

“I said, ‘too good to dougie?’” The remark sounds stupid the second time around, even to her own ears. The shorter girl before her smiles humorously.

“More like too bad,” she answers. “Trust me, no one wants to see me dance.”

Mary-Louise stares at her. It’s probably a rude stare, but Mary-Louise can be a rude person.

The self-deprecating joke is unexpected. The girl before her is beautiful - absolutely gorgeous if Mary-Louise is being honest with herself - and she’s spent hours stewing in jealousy over how she never seems to have a bad picture angle and Nora’s gushing about the girl’s...well, everything. Bonnie fucking Bennett dogs herself and Mary-Louise must reassess her angle of attack.

“What?”

Perhaps she’s stared too long.

“Nothing,” Mary-Louise shrugs. “You just don’t strike me as the self-loathing type.”

“I’m usually not,” Bonnie answers candidly. She places her blue Solo cup, one she clearly hadn’t been nursing, on a random surface. “But lately, I haven’t been the kind of person who makes myself happy, so clearly a healthy dose of self-loathing is in order.”

Mary-Louise can’t help it: she chokes on an aborted laugh.

“Are you always such fun at parties?”

“You should see me at a funeral. The dead are really into stand-up.”

This time Mary-Louise doesn’t bother to hold back her chuckle at the perfectly morbid concept. Bonnie gazes at her curiously, rubs her hand over her short corduroy skirt. Mary-Louise notices for the first time just how cute the other girl’s outfit is and feels another surge of envy.

“Wanna get out of here? This party kinda sucks.”

It takes a minute for Mary-Louise to register the invitation, but when she does, she stares at the dark-skinned beauty again.

“What?” Bonnie grins.

“Are you coming on to me?” Mary-Louise cuts to the chase.

It should bother her. Nora’s spent ages lamenting how tragic it was that Bonnie played for the wrong team. Mary-Louise had approached her with the intent to tear her down, justify to herself that she was right to reject Nora when it became obvious that the person she loved was beginning to maybe love someone else.

Now it’s Bonnie’s turn to laugh.

“Yeah. I can not be though if you’d rather just grab some In-N-Out and talk shit about our classes. This party really is a drag.”

Mary-Louise stares once more and this time Bonnie rolls her eyes.

“Seriously, is there something on my face? Something wrong I should know about?”

“No.” And that right there? That was Mary-Louise’s entire problem.

**-o0o-**

Mary-Louise meets Bonnie at a party. Bonnie picks her up. They end up back in Bonnie’s shared apartment, smoking weed and watching _ The Great British Bake Off _before, unexpectedly (or not so unexpectedly) Bonnie’s hand is cupping Mary-Louise’s sex through her panties and Mary-Louise has stripped Bonnie of her top and bra to pop one perfect brown nipple into her mouth and well…

That is how Mary-Louise begins pseudo-dating her ex-girlfriend’s crush: sucking on Bonnie Bennett’s clit while Fairy Mary talks shop about shortbread.

It’s not a bad start to a friendly arrangement.

Neither of them needs or wants anything serious.

After they fuck, Mary-Louise confesses frankly that the only reason she talked to Bonnie at all is because she’s the reason she broke up with Nora.

(“Business Finance Nora?” Bonnie had questioned.

“Yes.”

“Good god, over me? _ Why? _”)

In return, Bonnie confesses that she had also just gotten out of a serious relationship and was at the party nursing a broken heart more than she’d been nursing the drink in her abandoned cup.

(“It’s complicated,” Bonnie sighed. “But it was my fault. Enzo deserved someone who loved him and that someone wasn’t - isn’t me.”)

Talking about their exes isn’t the most conventional pillow talk, but it works for Mary-Louise and apparently for Bonnie too.

Their arrangement is easy. Sometimes they meet up to decompress from the stresses of school, borrowing orgasms from each other like shared clothes. Sometimes they meet up to study because despite being younger, Bonnie is a year ahead and has taken two of Mary-Louise’s current professors the semester before. Her notes are heaven-sent.

It’s on one of these study-dates that Mary-Louise sees Malachai.

She should have realized. Bonnie seemed hesitant to meet her at the cafe Mary-Louise suggested, but Mary-Louise is tired of the library’s dull walls and aura of misery. Besides, she wants a decent cup of coffee to go with her mental breakdown. Mary-Louise offers to drive and pay in order to get Bonnie to come and when she picks Bonnie up, the caramel-skinned beauty is oddly nervous.

When they get to the cafe, she takes a few furtive glances around, seeming to relax once she’s deemed what coast she’s searching to be clear. They settle down at a back table in a quiet corner and pour over Bonnie’s old physics notes. After an hour, Bonnie has effectively chilled the fuck out and Mary-Louise decides it’s time to caffeinate.

The guy at the register has a nice smile. He’s tall with a swimmer’s build and an odd aura of danger and goofiness about him. He kind of reminds her of Nora and if Mary-Louise wasn’t a thousand percent gay, she thinks she might be into him.

He freezes slightly when she rattles off Bonnie’s order, but then quickly recovers.

“Five ninety-eight,” he says. Mary-Louise frowns.

“That’s not right. I ordered two drinks.”

“Second’s on the house.”

Mary-Louise squints at him. “I’m a dyke,” she says bluntly. The guy - _ Kai _, his name tag says - laughs out loud.

“No worries,” he assures. “I’m not hitting on you. Second drink’s still free.”

Mary-Louise continues to look at him but pays the discounted price. Free is free, and Stanford has taught her to value her coins.

She rejoins Bonnie and tells her about the nice boy who gave her a discount.

“I hope he doesn’t do that all the time though, he’ll get fired,” Mary-Louise muses. It takes her a moment to notice that Bonnie has frozen, staring at her with wide eyes.

Before she can ask what's wrong, the swimmer boy shows up with their order. After giving them their lattes, he places a brownie Mary-Louise definitely didn’t order in front of Bonnie.

“For when that sweet tooth hits you, Bon,” he says. He pats Bonnie’s shoulders, fingers trailing off the other girl’s skin as he walks away, not looking back.

Bonnie looks like a deer in the headlights. Mary-Louise gazes back and forth between them.

“Shall I kill him?”

The stock stillness holding Bonnie captive leaves her and the petite woman deflates.

“No,” she stares at the pastry dejectedly. “You don’t have to. I appreciate the thought though.”

Mary-Louise isn’t exactly sure what the limitations of their relationship are. They’re not together and neither of them really wants to be together. But they _ are _ more friends than fuck buddies or study buddies. It’s a leap when she asks:

“Is that him? The guy who you don’t deserve?”

Bonnie shakes her head, chewing her lip raw. She’s sans make-up today and still one of the most beautiful girls Mary-Louise has ever seen, second only to Nora in her opinion.

“No, he’s the reason we broke up.”

Yikes. More proof that Bonnie wasn’t so perfect after all. Mary-Louise takes a pointed sip of her latte, trying to drown her inner gossip.

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Wanna talk about Nora unfriending you?” Bonnie counters.

A sharp pang ripples through Mary-Louise as she recalls the hours she spent crying and obsessing over the loss of contact. It was her own fault, but it still hurts.

Oh. Ah.

Touche.

They finish studying in silence.

**-o0o-**

A few days after finals, Nora confronts her.

“You’re so sanctimonious,” she accuses. Mary-Louise’s hand tightens on her bag strap, unable to deny the accusation. “First you dump me because ‘I’m too preoccupied with another girl to be serious about our relationship’ then you hook up with her yourself? I hate you. You’re a goddamn hypocrite.”

Mary-Louise closes her eyes. That hurt, a lot. She’s not over Nora, got under Bonnie to spite Nora, and generally stalked Nora every way she could until the other girl blocked her. So hearing that Nora hated her? Knowing it was her own stupid fault? Ow.

“Can we talk?” she asks, opening her eyes and looking at Nora earnestly. “I know...I’m so stupid Nora. Please, can we talk?”

Nora looks on the verge of flicking her off or punching her throat. Still, she swallows stiffly and waves her hand dismissively.

“After you then.”

They go to the coffee shop that Bonnie’s boy worked at. It’s public enough that Nora probably won’t kill her. They talk. They accuse each other in harsh whispers, glare at each other in silence. They make up. Agree to try again and take it slow.

Mary-Louise texts Bonnie and tells her that she’d like to end their arrangement. Bonnie agrees. Mary-Louise asks when Bonnie wants her physics notes back. Bonnie tells her before the weeks out, however and whenever is most convenient for her.

The bell on the door dings before Mary-Louise can respond and she looks up. Bonnie’s boy - Kai - has come in and he’s heading behind the register to clock in. Mary-Louise gets an idea.

“You ready to go?” she asks Nora who’d been watching her text Bonnie with an unreadable expression. Nora nods and Mary-Louise takes her hand, guiding her to the register.

“Hey,” she greets Kai.

“Hi,” he smiles back politely. “You’re Bonnie’s friend.”

Nora shifts at the statement and Mary-Louise squeezes her hand reassuringly.

“Yes,” she says. “Can you do me a solid?”

She reaches into her bag and pulls out Bonnie’s notebook.

“Can you give this back to her for me? I won’t be able to see her before I leave.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you guys. Best fandom, for sure.

* * *

**the boy who had a crush** ****

“This is Abby Wilson,” his social worker tells him. “And this is her husband, Jim Wilson. They’ll be your foster parents.”

Abby steps forward, all smiles and warm hugs and sweet perfume.

“It’s so nice to meet you, Jamie. I hope you’ll be happy with us.”

**-o0o-**

He was. Happy that is. Jamie had been bounced around the foster system for years, too old for any couple to want to adopt, but too young to be on his own. No one wanted the angry black boy, no matter how smart or athletic or handsome he was. Jamie had anger issues and a dislike for authority figures - no couple in their right minds wanted him.

Then he met the Wilsons. They weren’t the first black couple to foster him - they were the second, It put Jamie a little more at ease to be with people that would understand a little where he was coming from: he was so tired of white saviors.

But Jim and Abby? They were great. Slowly, but surely, Jamie acclimated to living with them, came to love them. He and Jim even had the same first name, so sometimes...sometimes Jamie would pretend.

Then Jim died and Abby moved them across the country. Jamie was angry all over again.

Portland was alright. Lots of hipsters. He liked the weather, liked how beautiful nature was only an hour’s drive away. Abby liked to hike and dragged Jamie along with her, to tire him out too much for his anger to get the better of him.

It was a new adjustment, but Jamie’s used to acclimating. He gets used to it.

**-o0o-**

Oh right. There was one thing about being with Wilsons that he never quite got used to. Abby had a daughter, a biological one, from a previous marriage.

Bonnie is great. One of the best people he’s ever met and Jamie can honestly say his life is that much better for having her in it. He loves her.

He’s just not sure how and that causes him some problems.

**-o0o-**

Anyway, Portland is fine. Jamie makes friends and gets pretty girlfriend who’s just as smart and tough as he is, despite being his total opposite on paper. He doesn’t hate or love Portland and he’s a senior, so he’ll be graduating soon and going to MIT next fall. That’s the goal anyway, but Jamie is smart, athletic, black,  _ and _ a foster kid. He doesn’t care if affirmative action gives him a spot that some privileged trust fund baby thinks should be theirs. Jamie knows his worth and MIT is what he wants.

He gets in and he and Abby celebrate with Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake and dinner at some bougie fusion steakhouse. He’s lucky - his birthday is in the first half of January, early enough in the year that he turns eighteen after graduating high school and so he has this time with Abby before he’s booted from the foster system.

Bonnie comes the summer before he’s set to go to Boston, the summer before her own high school seniority. She brings him an Iron Man keychain and a hefty Amazon gift card ‘so he can get stuff for his dorm’. He loves the gifts. The keychain is reminders of the past decade he spent as a Wilson, watching superhero flicks with his foster parents and Bonnie as rewards for good grades.

Jamie hugs her tight, smells the plumeria and coconut in her hair. God, he loves her. She’s the best.

**-o0o-**

So here’s the thing about crushes. They ebb and flow like tidal waves and Jamie’s crush on Bonnie is much like that. When she’s in Virginia with her dad, it’s easy to convince himself that his love for her is strictly platonic, that he’s just a little confused because she’s pretty and nice and not technically his sister, so it’s not like it’s incest. That invalidates his college essays about found families being as valid and formative as biological ones, but Jamie’s spent a lot of time on Google and Reddit forums trying to sort out his feelings for Bonnie.

Upside: he’s not a complete freak. Familial crushes are totally normal.

Downside: whenever Bonnie comes to visit, his crush comes crashing down on him like a tsunami. It makes him irrational, opposing Jamie’s default setting of being pro-rationale. He hates it.

In retrospect, inviting Bonnie out to hang with his girlfriend and her brother was probably a bad idea. Or maybe it was him acting as an agent of fate, he thinks as he watches Bonnie and Kai Parker bicker with each other, because for two people who just met, they sure aren’t afraid to get in each other’s faces in some strange, antagonistic flirtation.

Jo catches him frowning at them as they wait for their respective siblings to stop screeching at each other long enough to get their snacks from the concession stand. She hooks their elbows and holds out her popcorn to him. He grabs a few.

“This is why I never take that fool anywhere,” Jo sighs. She looks up at Jamie’s disconcerted face. “It’s okay that you’re jealous, you know.”

Jamie stiffens. “I’m not -”

“Chill, Jay,” she soothes and pecks his cheek. HIs stomach flutters and he looks at her. “I’m not judging. Let’s just enjoy our last summer together and you can dissect you pseudo-incestuous feelings some other time.”

He shoots her a half-hearted glare and his girlfriend of two years grins mischievously. Bonnie and Kai finally stop arguing long enough to come back with their snacks, a large popcorn bucket full of different candies for Kai, along with some movie theater nachos and soda, a cherry ICEE for Bonnie and a smaller bag of popcorn.

“Oh, we’re ready now?” Jamie teases them. They both turn their scowls from each other to him. Jamie ignores the thump in his chest. “I mean, if you two need some alone time.”

“As if,” Bonnie grumbles, leading the way to their theater, not bothering to wait. Jamie can hear Kai’s mocking mimicry of the phrase and sighs. Jo pats his arm as they follow after Bonnie.

Jamie hardly pays attention to the movie, distracted by Kai throwing milk duds at Bonnie until she finally upends her ICEE on his head and storms out halfway through the film.

He makes a move to follow after, but Kai pauses him.

“No, stay. Enjoy your date. I’m gonna go clean up and apologize.”

He leaves and Jamie tries to re-immerse himself in the film. He has no idea what’s going on. Jo rests her head on his shoulder, hiding her laugh against the curve.

“She’s great,” she whispers. “If you don’t want to adopt her, I will. I’ll trade you one of my sisters.”

Jamie gives her another deadpan glare and Jo bites back more laughter.

**-o0o-**

After that, summer is more enjoyable. He and Bonnie spend lots of time hanging out with the Parkers and getting stuff ready for his first semester at MIT. He and Jo are on the verge of a breakup - she’s going to a school in Washington state, having been accepted into their undergrad-to-med program that guarantees her a spot in their affiliated med school if she keeps her undergraduate grades up and follows the prelaid track. They’ve agreed to stay friends, but decided that keeping a long-distance romantic relationship while juggling rigorous academia would be a bit much on them. But for the summer, they’re still together, and Jamie spends as much time with her as he can.

The almost-broken-up sex is phenomenal. Jo’s a fun girl, as pragmatic and curious as he is, and they both believe in the scientific method; their sex often comes in multiple trials.

One day, he and Bonnie are at the Parker’s gigantic abode - their dad is a business mogul and filthy rich, something he’d have to be in order to support eight kids without government aid after being widowed - and hanging out in their pool. Bonnie spends twenty minutes gaping at the Parker McMansion before falling head over heels for their pool and getting lost in her own aquatic world.

After coming down from Jo’s room, they join her in the pool and Jo makes mention of Bonnie’s hair.

“I love you curls so much,” she sighs. “Their so springy.”

Jamie casts a quick glance at his foster mom’s daughter, knowing the hair talk can get a little weird. Bonnie just laughs and shakes her natural hair at Jo, splattering the other girl with water drops.

“Thanks. I’m pretty lucky it’s low-maintenance. I was thinking about getting a new look.”

“Like what?” Jo asks. Bonnie shrugs.

“I dunno. A chop. Maybe a new color.”

“Oooh! You’d be a hot blonde,” Jo compliments. Jamie tunes them out and dives into the deep end.

When he resurfaces, Kai’s bought the rest of the Parker army out and a game of Marco Polo has started. Jamie joins, calling out “Polo!” in response to little Luke’s tremulous “Marco?”

It’s fun. So caught up, he doesn’t notice Bonnie missing until almost half an hour later. He tells Jo he’s going to the restroom, grabs a towel, and heads to the pool house bathroom.

He hears them before he sees them. He thinks to himself that he should stop, go back, head inside the main house to piss, because he  _ knows _ what he’s about to see in this bathroom. But curiosity has always been a curse for him and Jamie peeks.

The first thing he sees is Kai’s back. It’s moving in a rhythmic way, indicative of only one action and Jamie should know then to turn away. There’s only one person who could be with him. But Jamie has a scientist’s mind. He needs solid evidence, needs to see with his own eyes. So he looks farther out, sees brown legs wrapped around Kai’s waist, sees Bonnie’s sea-foam colored manicure gripping his shoulders, sees the way Kai’s mouth moves from being latched to her neck to mumbling in her ear.

Jamie wonders what Kai says, because Bonnie makes a noise then that Jamie isn’t going to forget anytime soon and pulls him closer. There’s no justifying lingering any longer, so he turns away and heads toward the house.

**-o0o-**

He puts it out of his mind. Spends more time alone with Jo and tries not to think about Bonnie asking to tag along to the Parkers and then disappearing for hours once they’re there.

Near the end of summer, Jo picks Bonnie up from Abby’s one day, leaves Kai in her place, and then the girls are gone for a few hours. Kai hangs out with him and they take turns playing God of War, switching out when one of them dies or wins a challenge.

“So you and Bonnie, huh?” he questions. He wants to kick himself, but it’s out there already. Kai dies in the game and Jamie holds out his hand for the controller.

“I - yeah. You mad?”

Jamie shakes his head. It’s been weeks since he caught them in the pool house and he’s sorted through it a lot. He loves Bonnie and maybe in another life, things might have played out differently, forbidden romance or not.

But in this one?

In this one, he’s observant. He’s seen the way Kai looks at Bonnie when she looks away and Jamie isn’t worried about Bonnie being the one to be hurt by their little summer fling.

In this one, Jamie has his own goals and ambitions, and not one of them is to be the kid that got his heart broken by his adoptive sister. He loves Bonnie, but having her in his life is more important than never having her love him the way he used to dream.

“Just be careful,” Jamie cautions. “She’s a lot younger than she acts.”

“She’s only a year below us.”

“And not as mature as she should be,” Jamie says, not taking his eyes off the screen. “This isn’t a shovel talk. Just watch out for yourself. It might be better just to be friends.”

Kai’s quiet for a minute. Jamie can feel his eyes on him.

“Is this about your crush on your sister? Because - ” 

Jamie sighs in exasperation and turns to face the other boy.

“It’s not. I’m a realist, Kai, I know that however much I like Bonnie, she’ll never see me that way. I know how to act and not act on my emotions and how to sort them out. I was a foster kid in therapy for a long ass time.

“But you? You’re used to getting what you want. You pursue it like a fucking bloodhound. And I can see it all over your face, that you like her more than she likes you and how it’s making you go white boy crazy trying to get her to reciprocate. So just be careful. Look out for yourself before you get hurt, because it’s not going to be her fault if you are. It’ll be yours.”

He turns back to the TV and unpauses the game. The Valkyrie kills him a few seconds after and he curses, passing the controller back to Kai, who doesn’t take it.

Jamie looks at him again. The other boy is spaced out, glass eyes staring at a corner.

“Kai?” Jamie prods. Familiar stormy eyes flash to him. “It’s your turn. I’m gonna go order some pizza.”

He orders the food, and the girls arrive a few minutes before the pizza kid that goes to his school does. Both girls are sporting new hairstyles, Jo’s cut in long, choppy layers with a red-brown tint to it and Bonnie’s is cut kind of like Rihanna’s infamous bob, in a gradient of bright, silky blonde.

“Whoa, damn,” Jamie laughs, spinning them both around. Jo winks and flips her waves back flirtatiously while Bonnie pats her head self-consciously.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, kid,” he resists the urge to ruffle her hair, instead reaching out to tug on one silky strand. “You look nice. Break some hearts next year and Skype me all about it.”

Bonnie snorts and shakes her head, looking past him.

Jamie glances over his shoulder, where Kai has entered the room out of curiosity. He catches his face in a moment of unguarded emotion before the other boy schools his face into a playful smirk.

“Do I know you ladies? You seem familiar,” he jokes. Jamie feels bad for him.

He saw Kai’s face. Whatever it is the other boy feels for Bonnie? It goes far beyond Jamie’s little crush.

Their pizza comes and food distracts them all.

**-o0o-**

He and Bonnie coordinate their flights to be on the same day, so Abby only has to make one trip to the airport. There’s a group hug and Jamie feels overwhelmed, has to choke back his tears.

He loves these women. They’ve helped him so much and wants the best for them.

His flight is first. The hug Bonnie wraps him in is warm.

“I love you, Jamie,” she says. “I know you’ll be crushing it at MIT and all, but remember to call your sister every now and then, okay?”

Jamie hugs her back then pulls away to muss her blonde curls.

“It’s a promise, kid.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, thank you guys for all the love.

* * *

**the boy who stayed a friend**

When Bonnie comes back from visiting her mom in Portland, she’s different.

It’s more than the obvious physical stuff - the platinum blonde bob, the more risque clothes, the bold lipstick. It’s in her walk, the way she looks straight ahead rather than down at her shuffling feet. It’s the easier grins, lightning quick and equally bright, and the general contentment with herself and her life.

One summer cross-country has given Bonnie more than a makeover. It gave her confidence and it was...hot.

It takes Jeremy by surprise, for he’d expected his friend, not some debonaire fashionista.

Caroline squeals the moment Bonnie comes into view, with her half pin-striped, half off-white shorts, and her sheer red tank top.

“DAMN BON!” she screeches, loud enough that the entire airport lobby turns to look at her.

Jeremy winces and hunches his shoulders a little, tries to shrink into obscurity as much as his six-foot frame allows. He’s not sure why he agreed to chauffeur her and his sister, except he’s here now and Bonnie has spotted them, that lightning smile stretching her purple lips and jeez Louise, she looks like a model. Green eyes gaze at them happily and Jeremy feels like soda has bubbled up in his guts.

“Hello, beautiful people,” Bonnie smiles back at them, opening her arms up for a hug that Caroline and Elena immediately sweep her into, a cluster of squeezing arms and overexaggerated delight. Jeremy can't help but roll his eyes, even as he smiles his own greeting.

Bonnie breaks away from the clutches of sisterhood and pulls him into an embrace all his own.

It’s much needed contact. Bonnie is a warm person, caring and supportive and _ safe _ in a way his sister, aunt, and other friends just aren’t _ . _ He’d been lonely with her gone, letting himself slip into old patterns. Old Bonnie or new, she’d always be a part of home for Jeremy.

"Welcome back, Bonnie," he murmurs into soft, icy yellow strands. Her hair smells different, more mature, without seeming entirely _ un _ -Bonnie- _ like. _ She’s not the same girl who got on the plane, but she’s not so far removed from her either.

"Good to be back," she pulls away to glance up at him. "My dude, are you even taller? How am I supposed to intimidate you now? Cut that shit out."

_ I can think of ways. _

It's a startling thought. His answering chuckle is nervous, but Bonnie doesn't seem to notice. He offers to take her bag, an excuse to look away and get himself in order. Even when they had briefly dated as younger teens, Jeremy had never really saw Bonnie that way, both too intimidated and too immature for true intimacy. They’re such good friends now that the sudden desire unsettles him, makes him feel like he’s betraying her somehow. 

It's Bonnie, after all.

**-o0o-**

As much as Bonnie seems excited to be home, the entire drive from the airport to her house, her attention is torn between answering Elena and Caroline's excessive questions and answering whomever keeps texting her.

Finally, Caroline gets fed up.

"Who is that?" the blonde queries, reaching forward to grab the phone. Bonnie pulls it away with a scowl, closing the screen and tucking it away in her pocket.

"Just my friend from Portland checking up on me."

"Is it a boy?"

"None of your business."

Caroline's jaw drops.

"It is!" Caroline gushes. In the rearview mirror, Jeremy watches as she slaps at Elena's shoulder, who gifts her a disgruntled glare in turn. "Lena, you owe me. I told you! I. Told. You!"

"Yeah, yeah," Elena mutters. She eyes the back of Bonnie's head curiously. "Is he cute?"

Bonnie looks out the window.

"He is!" This time, it's both girls crowing in victory. Jeremy wishes he was anywhere else, especially as they crowd forward to interrogate Bonnie.

"Hey, hey!" he interrupts, pointing at himself. "Driving!" He swivels his finger to them. "Distracting! Leave her alone, would you?"

Caroline grumbles and Elena rolls her eyes, but they both sit back obligingly. From his right, Bonnie shoots him a grateful smile. The funk that had been crowding in on Jeremy the last few weeks of summer feels less heavy.

**-o0o-**

It sinks back on him as school rolls around and the anniversary of The Accident approaches: he pops SSRIs more than quizzes. His aunt hovers, worried about a relapse, but Jeremy’s grades don’t slip and he passes the surprise drug test his part-time job springs. Satisfied that he isn’t falling back on bad habits (self-destruction) or hanging out with old friends (Vicki), Jenna loosens the reins and spends more time at _ her _ job, trying to get as much overtime pay as possible.

Without Aunt Jenna’s supervision, it’s actually Elena, not Jeremy, who gets up to no good.

“That guy’s a creep,” Jeremy mutters, looking up briefly from his trig notes to chime in on Elena’s conversation with Bonnie. His sister flips him the bird, but she’s refusing to give him verbal responses after their last bout five minutes ago.

‘That guy’ was actually Elena’s too-old-for-her boyfriend, whom she met sneaking out to a Whitmore party with Caroline over the summer while Bonnie was gone. In an attempt to get Bonnie to crack about her own mystery man, Elena was spilling all kinds of unwanted details about her relationship with _ Damon _. Jeremy had hoped she would move the gossip party to her room, but nope; she’d plopped her ass on the couch while he was studying and started going in on the oversharing.

(“Oh my god, fucking kill me,” Jeremy had groaned ten minutes into Elena’s confession. It was too much, _ too much _, for him overhear exactly where Humbert Humbert had put a vibrator on his sister.

“Fuck off, Jeremy,” Elena snipped.

“This is sibling abuse. Shut up, I’m begging you,” he protests loudly, Bonnie’s mirthful snickers ringing in his ear.)

“I’m hungry,” Bonnie interrupts before Jeremy can snark back and start a new argument. “You guys want Chinese?”

Jeremy perks up and his stomach reminds him of its existence at the thought of egg rolls and orange chicken lo mein.

“W.D.’s?” he queries.

“Of course,” Bonnie responds. Elena murmurs her consent, then asks if Bonnie would be cool with her inviting someone else over as well. Bonnie agrees, ever the accommodating friend. It was her worst trait in Jeremy’s opinion.

“I’m not cool with it,” Jeremy grumbles.

“Don’t care,” Elena snaps.

Bonnie hands him the take out menu for W.D.’s before Jeremy makes up his mind to throw his pencil at his sister’s head.

**-o0o-**

W.D.’s or Wong’s Fine Dining, is a local family-owned Chinese restaurant that’s been in Mystic Falls for years and is probably the most visited establishment in town aside from The Grill and the schools. Jeremy calls and his friend Anna, the owner’s daughter, picks up. He spends a few minutes talking with her - stressing about the upcoming trig test and bitching about his sister - after placing his order, until someone calls for Anna in the background.

“I’m coming!” she calls back. “I gotta go, Jer. Is this delivery or pick up?”

“I’ll come by,” he says. “Trade you problem sets?”

“Yes, please! Bye.”

“Later.”

He starts to gather up his notes and homework for Anna, immediately getting ready to go. W.D.’s isn’t far, but by the time it takes him to get from the suburbia of Mystic Falls to the ‘downtown’ area where the restaurant is, their food should be ready, and Jeremy has always preferred to eat his chicken warm. He’s surprised to find Bonnie waiting by the door for him.

He takes his keys off the hook.

“You’re coming too?”

“Yeah, I thought I’d give you a hand while Elena gets ready for her guest.”

Ah ha. Jeremy gets it. She didn’t want to be left alone with the happy couple once Elena’s cradle-robbing boyfriend showed up. He wouldn’t either.

He shrugs and opens the door for her and they chatter idly on their way to the car. His SUV - a brand new, fully paid heirloom from his dead mother - has Bluetooth, so Bonnie links her phone and starts going through her playlist.

He’s surprised that he hardly recognizes any of the songs.

“What’s this?” he asks again and when Bonnie tells him, delving passionately into details about the artist, Jeremy glances at her fondly. She cuts herself off, looking to him and he raises his eyebrows at her questioningly.

“What?” she asks.

“Nothing,” he shakes his head. “You’re cute. Have you always been so into music or is this a part of the ‘Portland Upgrade?’”

“The wha-?” Bonnie laughs incredulously.

“You know. Going away for the summer, coming back all hot and blonde and too cool for us lowly small town folk.”

Bonnie snorts. “You’re insane.”

“I’m right. And Lena’s jealous. Why do you think she’s gushing about her Crypt Keeper boyfriend?” Bonnie purses her lips at the insult, trying to bite back the curve to her lips.

“That’s so mean, you haven’t even met him!”

“He’s twenty-five! She’s eighteen, I’m allowed to be mean!”

Bonnie goes quiet. “It is kinda weird,” she finally concedes.

“I know, right?”

“Crypt Keeper was a nice touch.”

“I’m hilarious,” Jeremy agrees with her, pulling into the restaurant lot and reverse parking in front of the building before anyone else can claim it.

“You changed the subject, Miss Congeniality. To be continued.”

**-o0o-**

Bonnie’s been in Jeremy’s life for as long as he can remember, and even though she’s his sister’s best friend, in some ways, Jeremy clicks with Bonnie better than Elena or Caroline ever could. It takes but a look between the two before they silently decide to leave Elena with her beau, taking their food and whisking off to Jeremy’s room armed with chopsticks and strawberry _ Fanta _.

Jeremy puts on _ Adventure Time _ and Bonnie stares at the colorful cartoon blankly.

“He’s so...he’s like, almost Jenna’s age,” she mutters. “I’m...concerned. They’re having sex and...oh my gosh.”

Jeremy shudders. “No reminders, thanks,” he pleads, shoving a whole egg roll in his mouth

_ Yes _. If W.D.’s egg rolls was the last thing he ever ate, he’d die happy.

“And anyway, he’s not gonna last, they never do,” Jeremy says through his food. “It’s about you. Who’s the dude?”

“You too? Seriously?”

“Hey, I don’t care,” Jeremy corrects. “I just want to one up Her Highness.”

“By what? Getting the tea before she does?”

“...Yes”

Bonnie looks at him, unimpressed, shoving a chopstick full of beef and broccoli into her mouth. 

“It’s my business.”

“That’s fair.”

They eat in companionable silence, laughing softly at Finn and Jake’s antics and quipping “What a good boy am I!” to each other between mouthfuls.

“He played all those songs for me,” she said. It takes Jeremy a moment to catch on, but when he does, he settles back against his bed and faces her, silently beckoning her to continue. She bites her lip.

“The songs in the car. he introduced them all to me. We, uh, hung out a lot. My brother was dating his sister, so we kinda got stuck together and we’d listen to music together. I thought he was an ass bucket, but he turned out all right.”

Bonnie pauses. “You remember when we dated? Then we kissed and we thought it was weird and we promised to never do it again?”

“Yeah?” Jeremy frowns. “Why, is he better? Because in my defense, I was thirteen and you were dating down.”

The eye roll she gives him is one worthy of Olympic gold.

“Fuck you,” she mutters.

“You had your chance, too late now,” Jeremy bites back cheekily.

“_ Anyway _...you remember how it felt off? Kind of wrong?”

Boy, did he ever.

“Yeah,” he shrugs.

“It was, like, the total opposite with him. I felt...polarized. Like a force of nature had swept me up and all I could do was survive it. To be honest, it freaked me out.”

It’s not really what she says, but _ the way _ she says it that has Jeremy looking at her sharply. He studies Bonnie, one of his oldest friends, his first girlfriend, someone who was family to him and it becomes as clear as day to him.

Oh, he thinks. _ Oh. _

The jealousy stings. She was mine first, he thinks, and is ashamed for it. He knows they’re not right for each other, but it still makes him a little sad. Having so fiercely loved the girl she was, to know that the woman she was blossoming into belonged with someone else… It was a tougher pill to swallow than he ever thought it would be.

“Does that make me sound stupid?”

Jeremy pushes his chicken around the carton. He tells her the truth.

“Not at all, Bonnie-Bee.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much. I'm sorry I missed yesterday, I had to travel for work and I was exhausted. I'll double post sometime this weekend to make up for it.
> 
> Special thanks to Guest29. I appreciated that very much, it was nice pick-me-up after a very shitty two days.

* * *

**the boy she almost married**

He’s not sure exactly where things went wrong, but he can pinpoint, with almost laser-like accuracy, the moment things fell apart completely.

It was Caroline’s holiday party. She’d invited Bonnie’s foster brother, whose plus one was some guy and that guy...Yeah. Fuck that guy.

Jesse sits down on the floor of his emptied out apartment, staring blankly at the wall in front of him. All his stuff has been shipped ahead to his new place in Chicago, where he’ll start his new position in a week. All of  _ her _ stuff is gone, taken with her after the tumultuous end. Jesse wonders if she got to Portland okay, then reminds himself that he doesn’t have to care anymore.

“Fuck,” Jesse mutters and lies down. The wood flooring is cool against his back, the ceiling fan whirling slowly overhead in a hypnotic rhythm. His eyes count the blades as they spin, five going on infinity, and he tells himself the tears leaking down his temples are from exhaustion.

It’s funny, but when he first accepted the offer in Chicago, he almost didn’t want to - he’d loved his stupid cubicle job in Whitmore and Jesse only took the position in Chicago because it paid more. He’d thought he’d need the extra money to support a family.

Now, Chicago is looking more and more like a refuge from his imploded life in Virginia and Jesse is longing to escape there.

But his flight is tomorrow evening. Until then, he must wait. He throws a forearm over his face and wishes he had something stronger in the refrigerator than soda to dam the flood of memories.

**-o0o-**

"Hold the door! Please!" A harried-looking woman calls out. Jesse's hand hits the open door button on the elevator keypad automatically, earning a glare from the man to his left.

_ Oh no,  _ Jesse thinks sarcastically,  _ two minutes late getting to the coffee pot in the rec room. The horror. _

Richie is an asshole though and as the harried woman enters the elevator, shooting Jesse a grateful smile, he can see the other man staring blatantly at her ass, despite literally not lifting a finger to help her.

Dick. Wad.

"No problem at all," Jesse answers her gratitude. He looks her in the eyes (fuck you, Richie) and thinks she seems familiar, despite being obviously new. "What floor?"

"Six."

Richie perks up at that, looking away from her derriere to ask, "You're in civil development?"

"Yeah," the woman responds. "I'm the new junior supervisor, Bonnie Bennett."

Richie's face pales as he realizes his churlish attitude almost made him snub his new boss. Jesse bites back a vindictive grin before he latches on to the woman's name.

"Are you friends with Caroline Forbes? From Whitmore College?"

"Yeah!" Bonnie smiles. "You're Jesse? She told me she had a friend in my new department."

"Guilty as charged." He and Caroline had hooked up fairly often during college but broke things off when she got serious with her now-husband. Jesse thinks his name is Nicholas, but he isn’t sure.

Bonnie holds out her hand to shake. “Nice to meet you, Jesse. I look forward to working with you.”

Jesse’s hand dwarfs hers when they shake, the warmth and softness of it tingling his skin. Even as she moves to greet Richie similarly, the sensation doesn’t leave Jesse and he has to rub his palm against the thread of his slacks.

The tingle remains and it feels like a sign.

**-o0o-**

Months pass from that first elevator ride, the days filled with designing blueprints and taking material inventory that lead to redesigning previous blueprints again and again before the final draft could be submitted to the city for approval.

Bonnie, the new junior supervisor, was initially brought on to oversee the design and construction of Whitmore’s new suspension bridge. Not everyone (Richie being the loudest) was okay with someone “so young and inexperienced” being put in charge of a project so big, but with each new success and timely solution, even that cunt Richie had to admit that maybe Bonnie knew what the hell she was doing. And she worked hard too, harder than pretty much everyone aside from the company president, often arriving earlier and staying later than the employees on her team. The bridge project consumes them and as it gets off the ground smoothly under Bonnie’s leadership, the team’s faith in her swells.

Containing the way his admiration for her competence and his attraction to her (because she is  _ fine _ , okay?) conflates gets harder as time passes and her initial new-kid-in-school reticence falls away. She’s confident, beautiful, brilliant, and, above all, kind - even to Richie, after catching on to what a dipshit he was.

Jesse begins to find himself lingering around her office more, soaking in her minimalist personal touches: the potted cactus by her computer, the mini-fridge full of water and caffeinated beverages, the three Stanford degrees hanging from the wall (A bachelors in civil engineering and two masters in management and public policy she got doing a joint degree program. Jesse’s proud like he earned the degrees himself and he remembers committing the information to memory from her self-introduction to the team to throw in Richie’s face every time the man bitched about her lack of experience), a simply framed picture of what looks like her grandmother on her window sill, and the lemony scent of her expensive plug-in.

He’s always there with some excuse, bringing her a sandwich from the cafeteria because it looked like she forgot to eat, or asking her to help him with his AutoCAD designs, sneaking in conversation to learn more about her.

Jesse’s hungry for those tidbits. He wants to know everything about her, the real her, to know the depth of the person so that his fantasies don’t overwhelm his image of her.

Bonnie likes pizza and Chinese take-out, but she  _ loves _ Thai and Indian food. Bonnie likes to travel. Bonnie speaks three languages. Bonnie used to do ballet. Bonnie was a cheerleader in high school. Bonnie has a foster brother. Bonnie’s parents are divorced. Bonnie has chronic migraines. Bonnie likes crime dramas and murder mysteries. Bonnie’s never had braces, her teeth really are just  _ that _ straight; she does get them whitened though, because she drinks a lot of coffee and wine.

His thoughts are always whirling with Bonnie and he thinks it might just be a work crush on his pretty work friend. Then, almost accidentally, when he comes in and sees her office lit and Bonnie settled in like she’d been there for hours (she had), Jesse asks her on a date.

“Sure,” she says. “I’d like that.”

**-o0o-**

“So why engineering if you like dance so much?”

They’re having dinner and Mario Kart at his place for their first date. It’s something fun and low-key that was unlikely to get them spotted by any nosy co-workers, and moreover: Jesse likes to cook and he wants to show off for the pretty lady.

“Well, I like eating more,” Bonnie says pointedly. “I’m not so good at dancing that I could have made a real career from it.”

“Civil engineering it was then.”

“Yup. I’m competitive. My brother’s an engineer too - he works for NASA though, so I guess he’s winning. Jerk.”

She says the insult fondly and Jesse assumes they’re close.

“How’d you meet Caroline by the way? She was pretty vague about it.”

“Oh, uh,” Jesse pauses, mildly panicked and unsure what to say. He doesn’t know how Bonnie would react if he said he’d used to regularly have sex with her friend, especially if said friend wasn’t being forthcoming either. “We had some design classes and art electives together.”

It wasn’t a lie.

Bonnie nods. “Did you study together a lot?”

“Yes.”

Also not a lie.

“Naked?”

Jesse stares at her. “Sometimes,” he squeaks. Bonnie laughs.

“It’s cool,” she says. “Trust me, our friend-group back home got a little incestuous with all the ex-swapping.”

“That’s...reassuring? I guess?” Really, it was weird, but he like-likes this woman, who happens to be his boss, and he doesn’t want to insult her.

“No, it was weird as fuck.”

“Oh, thank goodness you said it and not me.”

Bonnie laughs, a ringing, goofy sound, and Jesse stares at her, transfixed by her merriment. If he was a cartoon, he’d have heart eyes and he’d be floating in the air, carried by the musical notes emanating from her mouth.

“You’re amazing,” he utters and only Bonnie’s serious countenance alerts him to the fact he said it aloud.

“Thank you,” she smiles, tentative and hopeful. “You’re pretty special yourself.”

She points at her bare plate with her fork. “And you make delicious chicken tandoori.”

**-o0o-**

Bonnie kicks his ass at Mario Kart, managing to blue shell him off Rainbow Road twice, and he thinks he might fall in love with her at this rate.

**-o0o-**

If it weren’t for Caroline, Jesse probably wouldn’t have known about Bonnie’s birthday being so early in the year. Their relationship is still in its fledgling stages and she hasn’t mentioned it, so it’s unlikely she’d be upset at his not knowing, but Jesse is sprung. He wants everything to be perfect for her, so at work, he makes sure that when she comes in (earlier than everyone else, as usual) it’s to a cheery bouquet of daffodils and a small cluster of balloons wishing her a happy birthday. He has cupcakes stenciled with the number twenty-nine delivered from a local bakery and everyone, even Richie, is extra nice to her that day.

Best of all, they get good news about the construction of the suspension bridge, signifying the light at the end of the tunnel and fat bonuses for all of them at the end of the business year.

Even though they make an effort not to let their relationship distract them at work, off-hours it’s hard for them to keep their hands off each other. As soon as they clock out, Bonnie pulls him into a kiss, cupid’s bow lips firm, her hands tracing the curve of his back.

“Take me home,” she purrs. “I want my birthday sex.”

(Later, entwined in his sheets, Jesse’s hand between her legs and his mouth latched to her neck, he realizes he wants to keep her like this for the rest of his life.)

**-o0o-**

The suspension bridge gets finished and their team is dissolved. A celebratory work party is thrown and Bonnie and Jesse go as dates. They are free to date more openly now, especially since their firm doesn’t have any particularly strict rules against fraternization. It’s already been months, but they decide to go public and get met with lackluster fake surprise.

(“Nobody cares that you’re banging as long as we get paid,” Richie grumbles.

“You’re salaried?” Jesse queries.

“I want my bonus, numbskull.”)

They trade keys to each other’s homes, but more often than not, Bonnie will just come home with Jesse. She has her own drawer(s) and part of his closet is now hers, toiletries and a toothbrush by the bathroom sink, her favorite snacks in the pantry, random items littered throughout his apartment. It seems like a natural transition to Jesse.

“You should move in with me.”

Bonnie pauses, her hand over the popcorn bowl. Her head on his shoulder shifts until she’s looking up at him, movie forgotten. Jesse turns to face her, dropping the whisper of a kiss on her nose.

“Yes, I’m serious. No, I don’t think it’s too soon, we’ve been together for almost a year. A ton of your stuff is already here and you hate your place. Move in with me.”

Bonnie continues to stare at him, dumbfounded. It’s cute and Jesse’s helpless to the allure. He kisses her again, this time on the cheek.

“What about bills?”

“We split?”

“Chores?”

“I’m anal retentive and you’re minimalistic. I think we’ll manage.”

Bonnie’s stare doesn’t waver.

“Did I break you?”

“No! Yes? I’m just...you really want that? With me?”

“I really do.”

Bonnie’s head swivels back towards the TV and she snuggles deeper into his side.

“Huh.”

“Is that a yes?”

“It’s a ‘huh’,” she counters. “Let me think about it.”

**-o0o-**

She lets her lease expire and moves in the next month. They fuck on the kitchen counter to celebrate.

**-o0o-**

Their bonuses from the bridge come through and Jesse spends his almost immediately. The rock is shimmery green like Bonnie’s eyes, the band a twisting white gold inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Simple, elegant, and beautiful - perfectly suited for Bonnie.

**-o0o-**

The senior supervisor has a talk with them about professional and personal boundaries being upheld and has them sign some paper agreeing not to work on any teams together, but otherwise gives them his blessing.

Eventually, Jesse gets promoted and moves departments. Workdays become less convenient for spending time together, but they always have lunch and go home (at a reasonable time) with each other.

It’s a mundane and boring daily routine, balanced out by fun dates and hot sex. But it’s stable. It’s a  _ life _ , one they’re building together, and he’s been holding onto the ring for three months now, so it makes sense to take the next logical step.

Jesse gets on one knee and pops the question.

Bonnie says yes.

**-o0o-**

Things become a whirl of verifying dates and endless reservations - a reservation for the place, for the catering, for the freaking flowers. They're friends with Caroline, who squeals in delight when they tell her and takes over everything, only allowing them to make their preferences known before she made it a reality.

"Let me be stressed out! You just focus on each other," the blonde orders.

Of course, she's maid of honor.

Bonnie picks a dress and gushes to him about it, but he's not allowed to see it - Caroline is the maid of honor, after all.

Cake tasting is his favorite (Jesse's interested in the techniques used to do some of the cake designs because wow) and they settle on a three-tiered amaretto and rose chocolate (Rose chocolate.  _ Rose chocolate. _ What the hell even?!) that's downright addictive.

A reception hall is picked. They make plans for the future, their honeymoon, children, where to live. Jesse starts looking around for new opportunities because as much as he loves his job, he loves the idea of a fresh start with Bonnie more. He sends in an application for a city firm in Chicago and is surprised to receive a call-back within a few days.

“Go for the interview,” Bonnie urges, so he does.

Things begin to fall into place.

Then Caroline throws her stupid holiday party and things fell apart instead.

**-o0o-**

Jesse stares at Bonnie’s sweater. “It’s hideous, babe.”

“I know! Isn’t it great?” She admires her reflection, staring at the janky Santa Claus sitting in front of a table, three white lines in front of it and a straw in its hand. The words “Let it Snow” captions Frostie the Drugman’s activities. The sweater is fuzzy and oversized and loudly green.

“Think I’ll win the prize?”

“You’ll win something,” Jesse concedes. His fiancee sticks her tongue out at him.

“You’re just jealous of my awesome sweater.”

“Very,” he agrees, reaching out his hand. “Ready to go?”

“Ready to win,” Bonnie counters, taking his hand and letting him guide her out the door and to the car.

He has to hand it to Caroline, she throws a good party. And her husband,  _ Niklaus _ , a Norwegian ex-pat, had a whole family estate that was perfect for hosting big functions.

They weaved their way through the crowd, chatting briefly with Caroline, who flits around like a hummingbird trying to fulfill her hosting duties. Bonnie glows, her ugly Christmas sweater receiving lots of laughs and compliments.

“I’m totally winning.”

“It’s in the bag,” Jesse agrees, leaning down to kiss her. “I’m craving some of Care’s special eggnog, you want some?”

“Yes, please!”

Eggnog was never really a cocktail Jesse was partial to, but Caroline’s recipe was pretty good and very heavy on the rum. He ends up running into Elena, Bonnie’s other hometown friend and spends a few minutes talking with her and her long-time boyfriend Liam. By the time he returns to Bonnie, she had been joined by two men who crowd close to her.

He tenses, relaxing only slightly when he recognizes one man from Bonnie’s family photos. It’s Jamie, her foster brother - he remembers that Caroline mentioned inviting him up from Houston. 

It’s the other guy that keeps Jesse’s hackles raised. He’s Hollywood Tall with an easy smile, and despite his easy-going countenance, there’s something  _ off _ about him. Not predatory, exactly, but some kind of edge that gives him away as less harmless than he tries to appear.

He’s also taking up Bonnie’s space in a way that makes her shirk back against her brother, using the older man as something of a shield. She can’t quite look Mr. Hollywood Tall in the eye for too long and seeing her so unsettled makes something protective in Jesse flare to life.

In moments, he’s by Bonnie’s side.

“Elena talks a lot,” he says without preamble. “Everyone says Caroline’s the chatterbox, but I think Elena has her beat.”

“Jesse,” Bonnie breathes, seeming relieved. She moves closer to him. Jesse doesn’t fail to notice how she takes circumnavigates her brother to avoid getting close to Hollywood Tall. “This is Jamie, my brother. Jamie, this is Jesse, my fiance.”

Jesse doesn’t think it’s his imagination that the word fiance is stressed.

Bonnie’s brother greets him with a handshake and Jesse thinks it’s funny how the three of them are like a matched set. Only Hollywood Tall stands out, with his quiet assessment and his cyclical fixation on Bonnie. Her face, her body, her hands - several times, in the span of a few seconds, her left hand draws his gaze and an unreadable, blank expression hides his thoughts. It’s unnerving.

“Nice to meet you both,” Jesse says cordially. “And you are?”

Hollywood Tall shakes himself from his trance. Maybe he found Bonnie’s engagement ring hypnotic.

“Sorry, where are my manners?" The man meets Jesse's eyes, reaching for his offered hand. "The name’s Kai, pleased to meet you.”

They shake hands.

And much like when he met Bonnie, his palm itches and it feels like a sign.

**-o0o-**

Jesse never did get to see the dress Bonnie picked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all thought I'd leave all the angst for Bonkai huh? You thought bish, you thought.
> 
> This chapter was the hardest in the series to produce, believe it or not. There was a lot that hit the cutting room floor, particularly stuff about the break-up, as it would have made Kai's chapter feel redundant.
> 
> Jesse was played by Kendrick Sampson, he was the guy Caroline liked who got turned into a vamp and experimented on by Doc Frankenweinie or whatever. Jesse and Bonnie never really meet (I think his character was killed before she was resurrected as the Anchor), but Kendrick and KG are friends irl and Kendrick is just too hot to not use his character in a rare-pair exploration.
> 
> His character wasn't expanded upon much canonically and when I tried to flesh him out, I wanted to make his voice and some of his core personality traits/hobbies veeeeeeerrry similar to Kai's. Like Kai if Kai drove a sensible car and had a good credit score. This is to insinuate that Bonnie does indeed have a type and finds specific things attractive, but whether Kai defines it or just fully epitomizes it remains to be seen. This chapter was also somewhat of a boring walkthrough of events because the relationship was supposed to be stable until the Kai-talyst was thrown in and healthy relationships can be pretty routine. And that's a good thing.


End file.
